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United States Patent | 5,546,480 |
Leonard | August 13, 1996 |
Generally, the present invention is an optically controlled optical waveguide circuit comprising a substrate 30, an inorganic waveguide core 34 disposed within one or more cladding layers 36 upon the substrate 30 and an active cladding drop-in component 40 comprising a non-linear optical material adjacent to the waveguide core wherein the phase of an optical signal within the waveguide core may be modulated by controlling the index of refraction of the active cladding region. An embodiment of the present invention uses an inorganic optical waveguide 34 with a drop-in component of non-linear silica 40 as an active cladding to provide a phase modulator for a Mach-Zender interferometer which can be used to implement high speed low loss switching of optical signals.
Inventors: | Leonard; Jerry (Plano, TX) |
Assignee: | Texas Instruments Incorporated (Dallas, TX) |
Appl. No.: | 430998 |
Filed: | April 28, 1995 |
Current U.S. Class: | 385/3; 385/5; 385/122; 385/144 |
Intern'l Class: | G02F 001/01 |
Field of Search: | 385/1-5,122,129,130,132,141,142,144,145 |
4936645 | Jun., 1990 | Yoon et al. | 385/2. |
5315422 | May., 1994 | Utaka et al. | 385/5. |
SPIE Integrated Optical Circuits II, vol. 1794, '92, Chen et al., "Polymer-glass-waveguide all-optical switches", pp. 388-396. (No Month). Nuclear Instrumewnts/ Methods in Physics Research B65, '92, Haglund, Jr. et al., "Nonlinear index of refraction of Cu-and Pb-implanted fused silica", pp. 405-411 (No Month). Electronics Letters, vol. 29 No. 5, Mar. 1993, "Silica-Based Optical Waveguide on Terraced Silicon Substrate as Hybrid Integration Platform", pp. 444-446, Y. Yamada et al. IEEE Photonics Technilogy Letters, vol. 6, No. 7, Jul. 1994, Yamada et al., "An Application of a Silica-on-Terraced-Silicon Platform to Hybrid Mach-Zehnder Interferometric-Circuits . . .", pp. 822-824. Optical Engineering, vol. 28 No. 12, Dec. 1989, Yamada et al., "Optical interconnections using a silica-based waveguide on a substrate", pp. 1281-1287. Nuclear Instruments/Methods in Physics Research B59/60, '91, Yang et al., "Laser-induced fluorescence and nonlinear optical properties of ion-implanted fused silica", pp. 1304-1307. (No Month). |
TABLE ______________________________________ Ele- Alter- ment Specific Name Generic Name natives ______________________________________ 20 3dB Coupler 22 Interferometer Region Interferometer 24 Input Y-Branch 26 Output Y-Branch 30 Silicon Substrate GaAs 32 SiO.sub.2 Cladding Doped SiO.sub.2 34 PSG Core Waveguide Core Doped Si 35 Photoresist Photoresist 36 SiO.sub.2 Cladding Silicon Oxides, Silicon Nitrides 38 Pit 40 Drop-In Component Drop-In Component Non-linear of Non-Linear Silica Opt Polymer 42 Drop-In Component Drop-In Component of Non-active Silica 44 Matched index adhesive Adhesive ______________________________________